Love Is Blind
Love is Blind is a love story that criss-crosses the globe in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th. Brodie Moncur is a talented Scottish piano tuner who has escaped from his oppressive Scottish father and is building the business of the Channon piano company in Paris. There he meets and subsequently works for the “Irish Liszt,” pianist John Kilbarron; his brother, Malachi; and his mistress, Lika Blum. Brodie is immediately drawn to Lika, but the illicit relationship they pursue may have dangerous, even life-threatening consequences.
This is a novel full of colourful characters and marvellous description. Every location – and there are many, from St Petersburg to Biarritz, Edinburgh and the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal – is vividly realized. Brodie is an unusual romantic hero: a gentle man, short-sighted and suffering from tuberculosis, but capable of great passion and loyalty. The Kilbarron brothers, on the other hand, are menacing from the outset. John, a drunken genius, depends on Brodie’s skills with his pianos to suffer through the pain that playing causes him. In search of financial reward as his playing days seem to be coming to a close, he takes his entourage, including Brodie and Lika, to Russia, where the two lovers go to extraordinary lengths to hide their affair, particularly from Malachi, whose concern for his brother’s interests is all-consuming. Lika, however, remains a mystery, both to Brodie and the reader. The story is told from Brodie’s point of view, and as the title tells us, love is blind.
This epic love story becomes a page-turning chase for the truth about Lika and a search for a happy ending in the face of unexpected trials and tribulations.
